Located approximately 80 miles north west of the cosmopolitan city of Montreal, in the Mont Tremblant National Park lies the year-round resort of Mont Tremblant. In the winter, the resort is a popular destination for many skiers on both sides of the border. In the summer, the area is popular for boating, golfing and IRONMAN triathlons. The IRONMAN swim is held in Lac Tremblant which is a pristine lake that laps up against the resort. Tremblant, as it is commonly referred to, is diminutive even by Laurentian Mountain standards, at only 2871 feet, it isn’t in the top 35 highest peaks of the mountain range and almost a full 1000 feet smaller than Mont Raoul Blancher which is the highest peak in the Laurentains. However, Mont Tremblant still offers up some surprisingly challenging skiing. USA citizens frequently state that when they go to Tremblant it is like going back to the old country, since it has a very European feel to it, although the colorful buildings resemble Reykjavik, Iceland more than the buildings of Chamonix.
Overall, the place is awesome! For anyone who lives south of the border and wants a genuine European flavor for a ski weekend, this is the place to go.
La Dynamite is infamous terrain for countless skiers in the United States and Canada. The trail is situated on the Nord side of Tremblant and can be accessed via the Expo Express Chair. The Expo slope is known to be the steepest area on the mountain and Dynamite is the crown jewel of all Quebec steep skiing – the trail has the steepest sustained pitch of any inbounds trail in the 527,079 sq. miles of Quebec. It is one of only three trails in Quebec that have sustained pitches over 30 degrees, the others are Alexander Dispatie at Mont Chantecler and La S at Mont St. Anne.
Dynamite can be divided into two segments the upper half is a “simple” double black diamond mogul run, the lower half of the trail is as difficult as they come on the East coast, to say it is a valid double black diamond is not an exaggeration. This discussion will be limited to the lower half of the trail. This segment of Dynamite, carries a pucker factor that will put butterflies in the stomach, of all but the most skilled skiers. There is a frozen waterfall/headwall that needs to be navigated in order to access the bottom half of the trail. To make matters worse, if you get past the headwall you will still have mogul after mogul to deal with before the trail ends at the intersection of Expo. Dynamite is very similar to Rumor at Gore Mountain in NY. They both have very steep headwalls followed by a mogul field, although Dynamite is 25 feet narrower than Rumor. The trail is appropriately named – Dynamite will unleash an explosion of demolition if you don’t have your “A” game.
While La Dynamite maybe the steepest trail, the hardest trail in Quebec is one you have probably never heard of it is called La Pirouette at Ski LaReserve.
To see my full review of Mont Tremblant click HERE